A majority of American registered voters nationwide support the legalization of marijuana, according to the results of the latest Quinnipiac University poll out Monday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking interest in how to effectively regulate marijuana.

The agency is cohosting a conference later this month that will include a panel examining Canada’s system of legal medical cannabis, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on Thursday.

Back in 2003 the DEA ran “Operation Pipe Dreams”, effectively shutting down every bong shop selling paraphernalia on the internet. The ill-fated and misguided war on drugs fueled then Attorney General John Ashcroft with nary an eye to the future of marijuana.

City and state officials, entrepreneurs, attorneys and others will come together June 14 for a daylong conference at the University of Washington on the future of marijuana policy in the state.

Thomas Jefferson University in Center City has created a medical marijuana education and research center, which the school called the “first center of its kind.”

The Center for Medical Cannabis Education & Research, part of the Institute for Emerging Health Professions, will provide guidance to clinicians and patients about cannabinoid focused-therapies.

Tempe rejected a medical marijuana facility's request to open in a building on McClintock Drive just south of Rio Salado Parkway.(Photo: Chris Coppola)

A dispute over whether a medical-marijuana facility can locate across from Arizona State University property in Tempe is headed toward a showdown in Maricopa County Superior Court.

The dispensary, Healing Healthcare Inc.,  claims city officials wrongly invoked an ordinance that prevents dispensaries from locating within 500 feet of residential zoning districts when it sought to open in a building across from ASU's Karsten Golf Course, on McClintock Drive just south of Rio Salado Parkway.

In early May, the national advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project sent out a panicked email titled “Alone, beaten down and incredulous in Boston.” MPP had been working to land a marijuana legalization measure on Massachusetts’ ballot this November, but a recent fundraising event in Boston had drawn just a single attendee. “What’s worrisome isn’t this one bad event, but that it mirrors the contributions and involvement across Massachusetts since the initiative launch,” MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia wrote in the message. “Simply put, the campaign is broke,” he noted.

Since the 1970s, a weed decriminalization shift has swept the nation, and New York was one of the first states to jump on board with the passing of the Marijuana Reform Act in 1977. Still, New York’s marijuana-related arrest rate became the highest in the country—more than double the national average in 2013 with over 535 arrests per 100,000 people.

Other than being at an increased risk of gum disease, people who smoked marijuana for up to 20 years during adulthood were generally as healthy as people who didn't light up, according to a new study.

The same researchers had previously found that marijuana users were at higher risk of cognitive decline and descent into lower social and economic strata, but the new study suggests the same isn't true for physical health.

"The only measures that seemed to indicate any really serious health problem was periodontal disease," said senior author Terrie Moffitt, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Child patients with serious medical conditions will be the first Pennsylvanians granted legal access to medical marijuana — potentially as early as this summer.

Health Secretary Karen Murphy said Wednesday that her department is in the midst of drafting temporary guidelines that would allow caregivers to obtain the drug from other states while production is ramped up in Pennsylvania.

"We believe it's crucial to expedite this temporary regulation to provide this medical treatment option to minors who are in dire need," Murphy said, at a press conference outlining the process. Those regulations are expected in July, she said.